The present invention relates to management of telecommunications cables. More specifically, the invention relates to an apparatus and method for managing large numbers of telecommunications cables within a confined space.
Telecommunications equipment, especially, but not limited to, central office switching hardware, is becoming increasingly compact. Previous generations of such equipment typically occupied several equipment racks in a central office. Current technology collapses this equipment down to one shelf occupying one third to one half of such a rack. However, the more compact modern equipment still serves the same number of users and thus requires the same number of wires connecting the equipment to the users. The wire-carrying cables that used to be distributed among several equipment racks must now be connected to a single shelf. Managing the layout and connection of these cables within the confines of this compact chassis is increasingly a problem. Proper cable management is important to facilitate access to removable plug-in modules, insure proper ventilation air flow, and simplify growth and expansion of equipment installation.
The present invention provides a cable management system for holding and guiding telecommunications cables in the area of telecommunications equipment so that the cables dress neatly and each cable follows a specific path to its attachment point on the equipment without interfering with other cables connecting to the same equipment.
The invention provides a cable holding matrix and method of using the matrix to manage multiple optical or electrical cables. The matrix is composed of posts attached to a support member. Two pluralities of aligned posts protrude from a surface of the support member and intersect each other at an acute angle. The posts are spaced such that cables may be guided between two neighboring posts in the second plurality, bent around one of those neighboring posts, and positioned between two neighboring posts in the first plurality.